Causality by Mario Bunge (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 311 as ministers, and He can replace one with another without affecting the quality or nature of the believer's faith; ..." (p. 124-5). Now does not this explanation omit the crucial point? What is the word of God? What is its constitution, its permanent status? Is the subjective faith the only intrinsically divine factor in the revelatory situation? The definition of faith given by the Council is controlled by a more fundamental statement: " Furthermore, the perpetual universal belief of the Catholic Church has held and now holds that there are two orders of knowledge, distinct not only in origin but also in object. They are distinct in origin, because in one we know by means of natural reason; in the other, by means of divine faith. And they are distinct in object, bei:!ause in addition to what natural reason can attain, we have proposed to us as objects of belief mysteries that are hidden in God and which, unless divinely revealed, can never be known" (D. 1795}. It is the intrinsically supernatural character of the word of God that requires the movement of supernatural faith. True, the mode of proclamation is accidental, yet there must be (ordinarily) proclamation. The teaching situation is an integral element of revelation to us. That I believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, it must be revealed to me, not only by a hidden movement of faith (which is only analogously called revelation } but by an objective presentation of this truth as God's word. St. Paul doesn't seem to have had any difficulty in reconciling the two attitudes of faith: " Faith then depends on hearing, and hearing on the word of Christ " (Rom. 10:17} . St. Mary's College Notre Dame, Ind. JAMES M. EGAN, O.P. Ca1J,8ality. The Place of the Causal Principle in Modem Science.. By MAm:o BuNGE. Cambridge (Massachusetts), Harvard University Press, 1959. Pp. xx +380, with bibliography and index. $7:50. This work is a paradigm of scholarly research, crammed with references to everything that has ever been written on the subject of causality, together with suggestive. insights as to how to relate all of this material to the problems of modem science. It is a provocative and challenging'work for the Thomist, of which much will have been written before its full import for the revival of interest in a realistic philosophy of science will be exhausted. Bunge identifies himself generally with" scientific philosophy," but states that he is expressly affiliated with " no orthodoxy " (p. vi) . His main interest is the problem of determinism, to which he believes " no single 812 BOOK REVIEWS philosophic school has ever afforded a satisfactory provisional solution," although he is willing to argue " that we owe no single contemporary philosopher an analysis and systematization of the categories of determination comparable to Aristotle's '' (p. vii) . The main thesis of his book is his final conclusion: " The causal principle is neither a panacea nor a myth" but is "subsumed under the universal principle of determinacy." (p. 353) • To show this, he divides his presentation into four parts, the first dealing with the meaning of his terms, the second with a statement of what causal determinism does not assert, the third with what it does assert, and the fourth with his interpretation of the function of the causal principle in science. In the first part, where Bunge defines his terms and thereby specifies the nature of causality, it is clear that he is diametrically opposed to the Humean doctrine on causality and is unimpressed by the Kantian approach to this subject. He does not feel that modem quantum theory eliminates causality and cleverly observes that so-called " quantum indeterminacy is a consequence of the idealistic hypothesis inherent in modem positivism " (p. 16). Perhaps unfortunately, he limits his usage of· the terms 'cause' and ' causation ' to efficient causality at the very outset: "As has been usual since the beginnings of modem science, we shall hereafter restrict the meaning of the term ' cause ' to efficient cause, or extrinsic motive agent, or external influence producing change . . .'' (p. SS) , a restriction that greatly influences his final conclusion. This becomes strikingly apparent...